A Forgotten Comfort
by ThoughtfullStudent
Summary: A redo of a previous fanfic i had been writing on the warframe forums. Covers the idea that the Stalker originated from a clan that they subsequently wiped out, leaving only two alive. One joined sides with the Stalker, the other collecting the tags of his clan and swearing to avenge them. M rating for future violence and Intimacy. Currently on hold.
1. Chapter 1

**A long Forgotten Comfort**

_L'dael..._

The voice was echoey and muffled, as if shouted from the other side of a wall.

_L'dael..._

This time it was closer, sharper, slicing knife like through the fuzzy haze that was L'dael's mind.

L'DAEL!

His eyelids snapped open. He was staring up at the roof of the small Tenno extraction craft - and also into the shimmering blue eye's of Crane, a Nyx class frame operator. With a moan he slid his legs off the bench along which he had lain and hauled himself upright. To a common human, he would look like an average twenty four year old guy, and a rather unkempt one at that; scruffy brown-blonde hair, a shadowy stubble dominating his face. His eyes, however, were what set him apart.

They were bionic: Fake.

Where there would have been white there was grey, and the entirety of his irises were a most amazing shade of blue. L'dael lent back, one hand supported his unsteady body which threatened to give way at any moment, the other went to the stark white scars the ran from the outer corners of his eyes almost all the way to his ears. The wound that bore with it the loss of his natural eyes and so much more. Too much more. With a sigh, he turned to inspect his companion that had been kneeling on the bench behind him. Like L'dael, Crane didn't look much older than twenty four. Her almost-white blonde hair shimmered brilliantly under the synth strips that ran along the roof. Her aristocratic features that were typical of most Nyx users were creased with concern, her eye's searched his for some sign that he was okay. She always did it, even though his eyes were no longer able to express emotions, she still searched them for a sign.

He hated seeing her - well, anybody, but especially her - likes this; worried about him. He wasn't worth worrying over. He gave her a small smile.

"I'm fine." He said, in his best, soft spoken, you-don't-need-to-worry voice.

Her features eased slightly.

Only then did he think to check his injuries.

Looking down, he found his undersuit was undone to his waist, the arms tied off in a knot to keep them out of the way. His torso was covered by a menagerie of scars from a hundred different battles, and it would appear more were still to be added. A hard nanotic pack was spread from his left pec, across his entire chest, and hooked over his right shoulder.

Memories of the fight swept back into his mind. The wound had been inflicted by a Grineer sawman. Lucky for L'dael, it was only tissue damage, thanks once more to his unfathomably lucky excalibur frame saving him from a would-be fatal wound.

"How long have I been out?" He asked. He remembered staggering back to the craft, one arm slung over Crane's shoulder, the other held his bratton at the on-rushing Grineer, barking out rounds that hit with unerring accuracy even with the wound across his chest oozing blood.

"A-about an hour...I think..." Crane's voice was almost a whisper. Her eye's were shimmering, as if she was about to break down crying.

She did.

Taking him by surprise, Crane threw her arms around L'daels neck and wept into the exposed skin of his left shoulder.

"I thought you were gone...for sure this time..." Her voice was a hiccuping whisper, full of all her fear and relief in equal measure.

L'dael was stunned. It had been so long since he had any physical contact with another tenno. Ever since the incident that robbed him of his sight and his entire clan, he had tried not to get attached to anyone, so that he could save himself from the pain of loss. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't bring himself to be cold to Crane. She was more than a couple of centuries younger than L'dael, pretty much new in comparison, and so woefully naive it hurt, but she was a demon of a fighter, it was the reason he picked her to be his partner.

His stunned surprise quickly turned to a warmth within his chest. The feeling was the comforting embrace of a friend, something L'dael had long forgotten, the surge of emotions almost overwhelmed him for a moment. He smiled down at her gently shuddering back as she tried to calm herself down. L'dael wrapped one arm around her head and pulled her close before lowering his head to her ear.

"I'm fine little one, don't be afraid." He whispered tenderly in the voice a parent uses to calm a frightened child. She pulled back from him. Eye's still brimming with tears. L'dael brushed a lock of brilliant hair that had fallen across her face back into place behind her ear. "It'll take much more than that to put me down." He smiled at her. She looked so innocent, so childish...not the beautiful goddess of death that she truly was. She closed her eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath, finally snapping out of her fear, she smiled back at L'dael.

"How long 'till we reach the Dojo?" L'dael asked.

Crane glanced at the underside of her wrist where a small holo-chrone glowed. The extraction craft was entirely automated, it's destination and return point were pre programmed into the datacore.

"Uhm..." Crane coughed, trying to dislodge the lump that she still felt in her throat, before continuing. "Five minutes or so."

"Okay, does Arkas want to see us?"

"No...he said the frame logs would be enough this time."

"Good, couldn't frigging stand having to sit through another lecture on reckless actions costing lives." l'dael stretched his arms up above his head, releasing a groan as his muscles stretched out before resting against the wall of the craft. "Think i'll just head up to my room then, try to get some rest."

"Uhm..okay..." Crane looked like she was about to say something else but thought better of it.

"What?" L'dael had one eyebrow raised toward her. She had started to blush heavily, which surprised him given how she had just acted in comparison to how she usually acted around the other clan members - quiet and shy, easily embarrassed, much to the glee of Cloke, the clans resident Loki operator.

"n-nothing..." She whispered, lowering her head to stare at the multitude of small scratches on the bench.

"Look, Crane...given how you just reacted to me being alive, I think you're a little too late to be embarrassed." L'dael said chuckled.

"It's nothing Dael." She snapped back, head rising to look him in the eyes once more. Now that was the normal reaction he got for his teasing jibes.

"Alright alright, i'll drop it." He smiled.

* * *

This is chapter one of hopefully a few, i'm still sorta a novice at this so feel free to drop me a PM with your opinion or some advice or whatever.

Anyways, Thanks for reading ^_^


	2. Chapter 2

Rest, huh? L'dael thought to himself as he gazed through the window and into the endless space that lay beyond. It had been six hours since he and Crane had returned to the Dojo and rest was the last thing that would ever come to him. L'dael had went straight to his room, not even waiting to see Val - the clans highest ranked Trinity operator and medical officer - and had quickly changed into shorts and a t-shirt, but something kept bugging him, so much so that he found rest harder to find than usual.

He almost never made an excuse to keep himself hidden away from the others, preferring to seclude himself to his room and stalking the corridors long after everyone else had fallen asleep, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to do that to Crane. Something about it made him feel worse than worthless, like he was betraying her in some weird, inane way. Like he had to justify not being with her Then again he suspected it had something to do with the truth behind his lies.

The truth that Crane was the only person he'd really opened up to; tried to smile for.

He had no idea why he tried so hard for her. He knew that if she got hurt - or worse - he would sink even deeper into his pain. With a sigh, L'dael slumped forward and rested his chin on his hand. He inspected the table before him, on which lay all one hundred and thirty two digi-tags of the tireless stalkers clan.

The one hundred and thirty two souls that he carried with him.

"Well, what do you guys think?" L'dael asked the tags. "Am I doing the right thing?"

They could not answer him, the bearers of those tags had long since left this plain of existence, but L'daels mind could imagine exactly what they would say. He got up and walked around the table to the panoramic window that dominated the outer wall of his room, gazing into the void once more. "Yeah, I figured that much..." He sighed heavily at the response from his friends. He glanced back at the table and checked the chrone. Midnight, Earth Standard Time. Everyone else would be asleep by now. Knowing he would not be able to sleep for another couple hours at least, L'dael walked to the door of his room and emerged into the corridor outside. The door slid closed with a barely audible hiss and locked with a soft click after L'dael palmed the biometric panel. He began walking in the general direction of the mess, debating internally whether he should try to open up more to Crane and the others. He reached the mess and poured himself a glass of water, sipping it as the debate continued. "You need to move on, gotta open up to her, it's what everyone would have wanted." was what one half of him said. "And then what? Tear yourself apart when something happens to her? It's a kindness to the both of you to stay cold." the other half retorted."Quiet." grunted L'dael, silencing his internal bickering. He stalked back to his room, back hunched, starring a couple of paces in front of his feet, he emptied his mind of all thought. The slap of his bare feet against the floor seemed to echo on forever within his head. It was a rare moment of peace within him.

No conflicting emotions, no regret of the past, nothing. L'dael took a deep breath, maintaining the tranquility for as long as he could, but it was not to last. He rounded the last corner before his room when the bio-sensors integrated in his new eyes spiked. They were the one passive system he kept running regardless of whether he was on an op or not, just made it easier for him to slink around the shadows of the Dojo unseen. He raised his head from the point he had been staring at and looked toward his door.

Crane sat to the left, knees drawn up to her chest, wrapped in a blanket.

He lightened his step, changing the slapping echos to a near impenetrable silence, and crept over to her. His bio sensors weren't advanced enough to tell if she was asleep. He settled down on his haunches beside her.

"Hey." His voice shattered the silence like a brick through glass, even though he spoke quietly.

Crane's head shot up sharply and searched frantically for a second to find the origin of the voice. L'dael smiled at her when she finally found him.

"oh...uhm...hey..." She was her usual quiet self.

"You okay?"

"Yeah...it's just...I..uhm...I couldn't sleep...I needed to talk to you." The last part caught L'dael off guard. He stared at her for a second before sighing and getting to his feet.

"Alright." He offered her a hand. "better come inside, it's cold out here."

She hesitated a moment before taking it and pulling herself up. Still holding her hand, L'dael led her into his darkened sanctum, the only light being provided by the distant sun that did little to lift the darkness. He went to the L shaped sofa that dominated the middle of the room that faced toward the window. He sat down in front of the glass table that was still covered by the tags of his friends. She followed him and sat in the corner, bringing her knees back you to her chest and wrapping the blanket around her again before hugging her knees. The air was heavy with silence, they both gazed out at the distant stars, neither willing to break the silence.

L'dael decided to be the one to do so.

"So..." He started, glancing over at Crane who was still gazing at the sun. "What was it that you wanted to talk about?"

The words hung in the air for a moment before she turned her head and stared down at the sofa.

"It's just...I want to know..."

Wanted to know? Know what? What's coming next? The thoughts bit into his mind, but L'dael remained composed. Crane seemed to be struggling to find the courage to say her piece, he guessed she was still shaken from earlier. Eventually, she found it.

"Why did you act the way you did back on the shuttle..."

Her soft voice had asked a question that he did not have an answer for. He didn't know why he acted soft in the face of his usual cold steel attitude. The silence returned like a slow tide to shore. L'dael thought long and hard for the answer to that question.

"Your guess is as good as mine." he said finally, it was rare for him to find no answer inside his own mind, but this one eluded him. L'dael looked over at her. Crane looked back. L'dael was mystified, she was smiling at him, the sun cast half her face in shadow while illuminating the other, her hair shimmered and her eyes gleamed like sapphires in the half light.

L'dael felt his pulse quicken and knew his face was turning red. He stood up and walked to the window, hoping she wouldn't notice. He could see his reflection in the glass. His eyes glowed their usual cyan-blue in front of him. After a second of thought, he made a decision.

He walked back over to the place he had been sitting and gestured for Crane to come closer. Siting once more, he looked down at the tags of his friends. He heard Crane shuffle as she joined his side, still wrapped in her blanket with her knees drawn up to her chest.

"Do you know what these are" He asked. She leaned forward so she could see better.

"Digi-tags..." He felt her lean closer still. "A lot of digi-tags..."

"One hundred and thirty two." L'dael plucked one from the middle of the first rank and held it up to his face, as if examining it. "Mine included." He returned it to its place. "The entirety of the true tireless stalker clan."

Crane was looking at all the tags in mystery. "All these people...are they..."

"Yep" L'dael sighed "I'm the only one left." The last part he said matter-of-factly, without a hint of the emotions that had left him crippled. Slowly, he felt Crane move closer to him and rest her head on his shoulder.

"Is that why you're like this..." She looked up at his face, it was as straight and untelling as ever. "Why you never speak to the others...?"

The softness, the care in her voice - the memories that it brought back - made L'daels chest hurt. Here was another person who cared about him, and who he cared about. "Fat load of good putting up the barriers did, jackass" his inner voice chided.

"Yeah..." His voice was soft now too "You can't lose what you never had in the first place...easier this way..."

he was tired, telling Crane had definitely taken a burden from him. L'dael felt Crane push herself closer to him, burrowing her head into the back of his shoulder where she stayed, until he felt the dampness of her tears.

"Crane..?" he asked uncertainly.

"Dael...you...you idiot..." it was quite clear she was crying once more, her quiet voice was cracked and shaking. "Why would you suffer all alone in the dark..." Crane looked up at him, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Why did you try to shoulder all of this on your own?" she asked before it became all too much for her and she needed to push herself into him again to hide her tears. L'dael smiled sadly.

"Because..." his arm went around her back and pulled her close, his other arm going around and completing the embrace. His chin rested on her head. "It's my duty...and my punishment..." His voice was shaking now. L'dael knew that if he still had tear ducts there would be tears streaming down his face now.

They stayed like that for a long while. L'dael holding her close, with her head burrowed firmly into his chest. Eventually, L'dael realised Crane had fallen asleep. Carefully, he lifted her up, still wrapped in her blanket, and carried her through to the bedroom. He lay her down, and pulled the covers up over her curled form. He stood back, looking down on the girl that had broken through his barrier.

"Jeez...this can only end badly" his mind told him. "Perhaps." he whispered aloud "But I have a reason now...I think..." with that, he turned and left the room, content to sleep in front of the stars. A peaceful sleep that he had long since missed.


	3. Chapter 3

L'dael looked down at Crane's sleeping body.

It was now ten am, EST. Nine hours of sleep. The longest rest L'dael had in quite a while and yet Crane was was still sleeping soundly. He scratched the back of his head, frowning. He had no idea what he was supposed to do about the sleeping girl in his bed. With a sigh, he walked through his darkened room to the sofa and sat down once more. Stretching his arms along the length of the sofa he tilted his head back and stared up at the ceiling. It was almost as black as the void outside. His mind was slowly going through everything he felt toward Crane.

"_Why did you put up those barriers if you were just going to let her in...idiot...but then again, you do need to move on."_ he sat forward and looked hard at the assembled digi-tags _"You'll avenge them soon enough...you know they've been attacking more and more operatives every week...but in the mean time..." _ His thoughts drifted back to the sleeping girl in the next room, the peace on her face mirroring how he had felt as sleep claimed him in the night. Once more he felt his pulse quicken. Suddenly breathless, he shook himself. _"No. Don't! You'll just get..." _ the voice trailed off. Imaginings of her naked body began to appear in his head and his pulse heightened further. His room suddenly felt very small, claustrophobically so, but he gritted his teeth against the flow of emotions. _"No dammit! Don't let your desires control you!" _ His mind began to race, trying to find an excuse to leave the room, at least for a little while. He remembered the hard nanotics casing around his chest. Grinning wildly to himself, he stood up, hurdled the sofa and ran for the door.

L'dael walked through the quiet corridors of the dojo toward the medical center. Though it was so late in the morning, the air was still. There were only about thirty operatives resident to the Dojo, and most of them just like him, remnants of dead clans, though most of them were not the sole survivors. They still had friends alive, living here in the dojo, they could move on unburdened by their grief.

He walked through the door of the medical center. Almost none of the beds were occupied on account of everybody being permanently careful while on op. Sometimes, if you were so unlucky as to get injured enough to warrant a visit, Val would hit you with a sedi spray and tie you down to the bed, just so you could heal properly. In L'daels case, he never gave her the opportunity. While being the single most reckless fighter in the Dojo, it was rare for him to get injured, just less rare and less fatally than the others. He scanned the room, only one bed was occupied. It was Cloke, a loki, with a nanotics pack covering his entire head. He heard a loud clacking from the far end of the room, where Val's office was, and she soon came into view. She was a tall woman with striking red hair and unique golden eyes. She wore a shirt and skirt under her white lab coat with high heels adding to her already impressive height.

"Thats quite a retro look." He observed, his tone neutral and devoid of emotion. Val looked up from her PDA and raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Well now, the stalker is paying me a visit, it must be a special occasion." She mused with a smile. Ignoring her jibe, he began to walk toward her.

"What happened to Cloke?" he asked as he joined her.

"Oh, him? he pissed off Gale enough to warrant a punch in the face."

L'dael couldn't help but wince slightly. Gale was a Rhino operator, in other words, he was the one guy you don't piss off.

"Yeah, broke his nose and shattered parts of his bone structure." Val sounded like she was barely containing a laugh. "Anyways." she turned to face L'dael. " To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?" Instead of answering, L'dael simply removed his shirt, revealing once more the roadmap of scars on his torso and upper arms, along with the nanotics pack. With a sigh, she lifted her PDA and scanned the pack with it. "What did you do this time I wonder?" She said aloud, but not directed at L'dael, she knew better than to expect an answer from him. "Well. The tissue damage has healed, leave it a while longer and there won't be a scar" She lowered her PDA and took a step back. L'dael had already began to remove the nanotics pack, placing a hand on it and willing it to return to it's original form. The casing slithered across his skin and formed an orb in his hand, revealing the slightly ragged scar the wound had left. "Or, you could of course add to the gallery." she sighed resignedly. Handing the orb to Val, he pulled his t-shirt back on. Val stood silently as he fixed himself and turned to leave.

"Thanks doc" he said as he walked toward the door.

"Yeah yeah, just remember to come and see me before you flee to your cave after an op, okay? Even you need a post battle assessment." She called after him

"I will." It was what he always said, but he never meant it. If a wound was something he could still walk after, he was fine. He would just check with Val a while later to see if the nanotics had healed the damage.

He stalked through the corridors once more, but instead of heading straight back to his room, he decided to go via the mess. Might as well get some food, he thought as his stomach growled in agreement. Back hunched, hands in his pockets, he entered the mess. Walking toward the food prep area, he noticed a gathering of four of the other resident tenno sitting on the sofas facing a large screen that some of the younger tenno played ancient video games on equally ancient consoles they scavenged from multiple expeditions to old Earth. One of them - Riza, an Ember operator - noticed his presences and called over to him.

"Hey! Stalker!" He hated that name, it made the rage that glowed deep inside him flare up, but it was the name he earned, given that he slunk around the dojo trying not to be seen and his former clan was called the tireless stalkers. He forced the fires down again.

"What?" he called back as he dug through the refrigeration unit, searching for something that took his fancy.

"Come meet the new guy, he's a 'Cali, like you" came her answer.

Perhaps he operates an excalibur, but he's not "like me", his mind grumbled.

"Not interested." Grabbing a packet of dried meat from the fridge, he left the mess. The others watched him leave.

"What's his problem?" Fier asked Riza, he was the new guy that she had mentioned.

She shrugged. "Nobody knows. All we know is that he almost never leaves his room, what we just witnessed was a rarity: him being around when everyone else is up."

"Is that so..." He said thoughtfully, his eyes following L'dael as he left the room.

"Don't even bother kid." warned Gale. "Hell will freeze over long before you get any answers out of him."

"Yeah yeah." He turned back to the others. "Has he been here long?"

"Nobody knows, no one even knew he was here until Cloke saw him come and get some food while he was playing with the game box one time." Said Ligo, an Ash operator.

"Longer than all of us I think" Riza added. "He was exactly the same back when I arrived five years ago. Only ever left his room for an op, to see Val about some wound or another, or to get food."

The group went silent for a moment, thinking about the mysterious character that no one really knew anything about when suddenly Ligo clicked his fingers.

"I know who might be able to tell us about him!" He announced

"Who?" asked Gale.

"Crane!" Ligo said it triumphantly, though Gale just shook his head.

"Nah, she wouldn't tell us a thing. Sure she hangs around with us, but she still aint very talkative and I seriously doubt she would share his secrets with us, if he even has any..."

Riza had grown bored of the topic. "Enough about the Mysteries of the Dojo, lets play some games."

L'dael sighed as he opened the door to his room. He walked to the sofa and took his usual spot in front of the table, followed by the usual cursory scan of the digi-tags to make sure all his friends were there. There he sat, chewing slowly on the strips of meat. Suddenly, something occurred to him. He placed the packet on the table and walked through to the bedroom.

Crane was still there, though she wasn't curled up anymore.

At some point during his absence she must of stretched out because she was no longer under the covers or wrapped up in her blanket.

She lay there, arms folded behind her head, completely naked.

It was all L'dael could do to not do anything - standing there shocked, watching her breasts slowly rise and fall in time with her breaths. Blood thundered in his ears and suddenly his world began to tip, darkening into an impenetrable abyss.

_Dael!?_

The voice echoed in his head, he heard a faint slapping and suddenly felt himself being shaken. With a groan, his eyes fluttered open. He looked up into gleaming sapphires as Crane tried to shake him back to consciousness.

"Uhng.." was all he could manage, blood was still thundering in his ears and his head hurt.

"Are you okay?" _There she went, being worried about me again_, he thought.

"yeah i'm-." he didn't finish. She must of rushed straight from the bed, she had not thought to cover herself. "fine..." He finally got out. L'dael knew as a fact that his face must be a magnificent shade of red at that moment. He looked to the left, trying desperately not to look at her slim figure as she leaned over him. "Hey...u-uuuh...d'you think you could..y'know..." he stammered.

_Oh blast it all. _He thought miserably.

"Huh?" it took a moment for Crane to realise what he meant, she could feel the heat radiating from his body. Her face went red, she sat up and looked at the floor. L'dael could hear her making small squeaking sounds as if she was trying not to scream in embarrassment.

Instead she released her frustration a different way.

"Dael..." she said slowly, her voice quaking with rage

"...yes...?" came his meek reply, he had never felt so wretched.

"...you...you...IDIOT!" She punctuated her sentence by slamming her fist into L'daels gut. The air left L'daels lungs, making him gasp. Crane leapt to her feet, and sprinted back to the bed, pulling the covers over her head and curled up into a tight ball, trying to squash the embarrassment in her heart and heat from her blazing red cheeks.

L'dael recovered and hauled himself upright with a grimace. He managed to get up with several grunts of effort. Even if she was a girl, she was Tenno, getting punched by one was not something an average human could get back up from quickly. With a sigh, he walked over to the bed and sat down on the side. He let the silence claim the air as he sat there, staring at the floor.

Finally, Crane broke the silence.

"Dael...?" came her quiet voice.

"Yeah.." His eyes remained fixed on the floor.

"Did you see me...y'know..." her voice trailed off before she could finish.

"Yeah..." He said with a defeat laiden sigh. All he heard after that was a soft whimper of embarrassment.

"Crane..?"

"mhm..."

"...sorry..."


	4. Chapter 4

"L'dael?"

The female voice in his ear broke his concentration for a moment.

"Yes, Lotus?"

"You are aware that you will have an extraction window of approximately three minutes if you're compromised?"

"That's an if, Lotus, nothing's definite until it actually happens." He said, returning his focus to the scene before him. He was kneeling on a tree branch, a Vectis aiming toward a clearing several hundred meters away. The Cicero Crisis had presented a unique opportunity for the pair of them. The location of a grineer data archive that - apparently - had information pertaining to the interactions of a certain Tenno and a grineer named Vor had came to the attention of the Lotus, and thusly, it came to the attention of L'dael: One of her most favoured special operatives and the only one who was driven by a personal purpose, not out of blind loyalty.

L'dael had personal interest in the information that he would be retrieving today.

Surveying the outside of the hidden bunker with the rifle, he spotted approximately ten four man Lancer patrols sweeping back and forth, moving slowly and deliberately, scanning every square inch of their designated sectors with an almost robotic precision. _Yup, they're elites for sure, probably anti tenno vets too_ he thought to himself as he shifted his aim slightly. _Aaaand they have snipers in the trees...great...how the hell did they get up there?! _Being a tenno, he could find a way to almost any elevated position, but the grineer? They were slow and lumbering brutes for the most part, so how could even a sniper, who was less lumbering and dumb than the rest of them, get up there?

"I can't get in through the front..." he muttered unconsciously to himself. "Lotus? Do the schematics indicate any other alternative entry routes?"

"Wait one" The lady replied immediately, a few seconds later the schematics for the facility filled half of his HUD. "Lets see..." the schematics started to shift around before him, jumping to different areas of the facility. "Ah!" The lotus announced, a hint of triumph in her elegant voice. The schematics shifted to show the area farthest from L'daels current position. "Here. On the south-east side of the facility, some sort of run off for the archives cooling system, you should be able to gain access directly to the mainframe terminal if you follow it."

"Thank you Lotus. Have an operative come and retrieve the Vectis, it will be less than ineffective where i'm going."

With that he lept from the branch. he plummeted ten meters in a low arc and landed into a roll which, in turn, transformed seamlessly into a sprint. Rushing through the jungle, picking out the path with the most avoidable twigs and other forest debris as to not make more of a sound than the soft whumping as he raced along.

"You're being unusually hasty" the Lotus remarked.

"This is the first solid lead you've given me in months, apologies if I seem more than a little eager to catch their scent again." He managed between pants.

L'dael had first started receiving missions from the Lotus shortly after the fall of his clan. He had made Lotus aware of exactly what had happened - in gruesome and bloody detail - aboard the Dojo. That is when she made an arrangement; L'dael would handle X class missions (missions deemed too hazardous for even a team of operatives) and in return she would assist him in hunting down those responsible for the fall. She saw it as two birds with one stone; eliminating threats from within and without in equal measure. L'dael had found those measures to be far from equal. While every mission he was tasked with did have some possible intelligence, it was mainly a trail of wiped datacores and suicidal grineer that would sooner pull the trigger than answer any of his questions.

He knew. Several missions ended with him stalking to the Maintenance Bay of the Dojo covered in waxy grineer grey-matter.

He splashed down into the run off ditch a little louder than he had hoped. He kept still for a few seconds. Crouched in the waist deep fluid, head slowly tracking from left to right and back again, the advanced audio receivers built into the helm scanned for the noise of approaching boots. A minute passed. Two. Sure that he had not been compromised he began to wade toward the grating that the coolant fluid trickled from.

"For a coolant system designed by the grineer there is incredibly low run off..." he said as he reached the opening and activated the laser cutter in his left gloves index finger and began to cut through the thick iron bars.

"I was thinking that too..." more images - text files - flicked into existence to the left of his HUD, replacing the facility schematics. "..yeah." The Lotus said after a moment. "L'dael, listen, the coolant system doesn't cool the mainframe at a steady rate. It's a dump-exchange system."

"Which means what exactly?" he asked impatiently as he pulled the cut bars from their places, opening a gap big enough for him to slip through.

"It means that it dumps out the coolant at predetermined intervals before cycling the fresh coolant in."

"Meaning?" He asked again. He was inside now, his knees and hands clanking and scraping along the corroded metal pipe.

"Meaning that in approximately three minutes, fluid so hot that your blood will literally boil you from the inside out will be pumped through the pipe at about three gallons a second."

"Ah.." He paused for a moment upon hearing this before redoubling his efforts to scramble along the pipe . "Y'know, that's the kind of thing it helps to lead with, Lotus."

_Clunk Clunk Clunk Clunk_. The noise vibrated through him as he crawled as fast as he could through the pipe. "Fifty meters." Lotus reported and then "Two minutes." Of all the ways to kick the bucket, being boiled alive by his own blood appealed to him the least.

"Right there, stop. You have thirty seconds L'dael, get to work." L'dael flipped onto his back and activated the laser cutter and slowly began to cut a hole big for him to slip through. "Some speed may be wise right now Tenno, twenty seconds."

"This isn't something you can rush Lotus." He knew she was starting to panic, she only ever called him Tenno when things were down to the wire. He was three quarters of the way through the cut when he noticed a distant rumbling from somewhere further along the pipe.

"Fifteen seconds." Lotus wasn't one to show her fear or panic, her voice never betrayed her that way, but over the years in her service L'dael had picked up on the Lotuses little tells so he knew that right about now her heart would be pounding. He finally completed the cut and started to push it up, it was heavy and needed a lot of effort to be pushed up and aside. "Tenno! Three seconds, get out now!" The heavy segment finally out of the way, L'dael leapt through the gap, the boiling coolant almost catching his heels. By the time his feet had hit the floor again his Lex was already up and skana drawn. The room before him lay dark and empty save for a single glowing terminal.

"There it is." L'dael murmured as he approached. He placed his hand atop the terminal when he reached it. "Ready for uplink." He told Lotus as nanotic tendrils spread out from his hand, securing it there.

"Copy that, stand by." Moments later, images and text files began to blaze across the terminals screen.

"Interesting..." was all the lotus said during the minute of silence that followed before something very bad happened very suddenly. The image on the terminal froze and Lotus gave a small gasp. "L'dael! They detected the breach, heavy grineer forces are inbound!" L'dael stayed silent, helm staring directly at the screen. "L'dael? Did you hear me?" Still he did not reply. He was too absorbed in his own tumultuous thoughts.

The image showed Captain vor with his back at an angle to the camera talking with a black and red Nyx.

_got you..._was what chimed through his mind. This one lead, this one simple infiltration had just yielded better results than all the op's of the last ten years combined.

"L'DAEL!" Torn from his trance and back to reality, he finally registered what the Lotus had told him.

"Did you get what we needed?" he asked as he withdrew his hand from the terminal

"Yes, I guess you saw that final image then?"

"Yep" he covered the door with his lex. "Now if you could find me an exit that doesn't involve cleaving through a horde of elite grineer in under three minutes, I would be very grateful."

"Got it, exit the room and head left, there should be a service elevator leading to the hangar a short way down the hall."

Not even giving an affirmative, L'dael sprinted from the room, he could already hear the shouts of the grineer behind him shortly followed by aimed grakka fire. L'dael dove left into an alcove as the hailstorm of lead thundered past. Peeking out of his cover he could see bug like grineer lancers advancing slowly, keeping their aim steady as the weapons in their hands pumped out lead. He had no time to waste. He leaned around his cover and took careful aim with his lex. A single shot of returned fire whistled toward the grineer. A shot that struck the left-most grineer in the hip, causing them to jerk to the left, stitching the lancer that stood there full of the small caliber ammunition. The other grineer dropped with little more than a clatter of armour, blood spilling out of the holes that covered almost the entire left hand side of his body. Without hesitation another grineer stepped over the body of his comrade and joined the front rank, another put a bullet in the head of the wounded Lancer before joining the front too. Using this slight lull in the gunfire to his advantage, L'dael sprinted down the corridor and found the service elevator.

"It's two floors above you." Lotus informed him as he hit the call button. L'dael cursed, two floors on a service elevator would take up a minute at least.

"Frak, short way it is" He grunted as he began to lever the door open with his skana, pausing once to shoot the leading grineer in the head as they closed in once more. He took a step back as he finished creating a big enough gap, returning the Skana to his back just as the rest of the grineer caught up to him. Firing a couple of cursory shots at them to buy him a second of breathing room, he dropped down the elevator shaft. his angle of descent meaning he had to slide down the wall on either side of the shaft multiple times before reaching the hangar. His luck held out, the service elevator arrived just as the grineer opened the outer doors fully, not giving them the opportunity to fire at the quickly descending Tenno.

Scraping down the final section of wall before he reached, he pushed off and shot through the opening for the hangar. Rolling as he landed, he turned and heard the whirring of the service elevator descending after him. Turning around, he saw the open end of the hangar a hundred meters ahead and began sprinting toward it.

"The extraction craft will meet you halfway down" The Lotus said with fifty meters left to go

"Great" He spat as more lancers appeared from between the shuttles to his right. Not even thinking, his Lex raised toward them on instinct alone. The Lex boomed three times and three bullets found their marks. One burrowed itself into the face of one lancer, shattering his faceplate and blowing most of it out the back of his head in a gory mess, covering some of the grineer behind him with skull fragments and grey matter which in turned caused one to wretch from the sight. the other two bullets found their marks close to each other in the chest of a gunner, stumbling him backward as his minigun span up, stitching yet more of his comrades full of bullets before toppling over. Ten meters to go, all L'dael heard behind him were the howls of those unlucky enough to get shot more than once and still be alive. Once more he leapt forth into the abyss, disappearing over the edge.

Freefall. He saw the treetops two hundred meters below him get closer every second.

"Lotus!" He yelled. He saw the extraction craft approaching from his left

"Grab on to it as it passes by." She instructed.

_Great, one shot to grab a ship that'll probably dislocate my arm if not tear it off altogether _was his thought as he stretched out his hand and said a silent prayer. Eyes screwed shit in his helm, he felt a sudden jolt and intense pain from his left shoulder. Strangling down a yell of pain, he knew he had somehow, with the sheerly stupid blind luck that was almost his trademark at this point, caught onto the craft. He clasped onto the winglet with his right hand, and began the painful shimmy along to the open portal in the side of the craft. Almost losing his grip several times, clattering to the floor of the craft, L'dael breathed out heavily before sitting up and removing his helmet. He twisted his head, causing the kinks in his neck to crunch out.

_Run damage assessment._ He told the neuro-sensors in his head, yet another advantage of having augments. Moments later the information appeared before his eyes in the form of a diagram of an average male body: The head, neck, torso, right arm and left leg showed all blue, meaning no injuries. However, There was a deep orange around the arm socket which lightened to yellow down the rest of the arm. He could guess what that meant.

_Great, dislocated __**and**__ extensive muscle tearing_ the voice in his head told him _best not let Val catch you, or it'll be your turn to get strapped into bed._ Scanning the rest of the body, he noticed a small area of red on the right calf. Looking down, he inspected the leg that had suddenly started to throb painfully. There was a hole straight through it. He groaned as the realization caused pain to flare uncontrollably throughout his lower leg. He Dragged himself over to the bench that ran the length of the craft. Pulling open one of the storage bins, he retrieved two Nanotics Orbs. Relaxing his mind and somehow every muscle despite his injuries, the outer armour of his excalibur frame gave small clicks and hisses as unseen locks disengaged. He pulled off the chest piece and breathed in deep, feeling less restricted in his already labored breath. He slowly set about removing his armour, each piece clattering against the floor as he dropped it. Next, he unzipped the undersuit and slowly pulled his left arm free, grimacing heavily, but before he could apply the nanotics he had to reinsert his arm. He turned so his left arm faced the bench and steady himself. He took a single huge breath of air before slamming his arm against the bench. He heard a pop as it slipped into it's socket, followed by enough pain to darken his vision. He felt himself begin to tip backwards but he held fast against the pain. Running low on energy and his pain threshold starting to cap, he slowly raised the first of the orbs to his shoulder using his right arm. the nanotics detected the presence of damaged tissue and spread down the length of his arm. Breathing became instantly easier as the nanotics soothed the pain in his arm. He allowed the nanotics to bend his arm so that it could properly heal the muscle damage before moving on to his leg. The undersuits worn by operators were one pieces, meaning to access his leg he would have to strip off much difficulty he peeled off the undersuit and threw it in a heap next to him, the right leg sticky with his residual blood. Reaching forward with the second nanotics orb, he grazed it across the open hole. He felt the nanotics enter the wound and tightened around the section of his lower leg. Strangling out a gasp as the nanotics caused a final flare of pain within his leg before that too began to feel cold and numb. Finally, he let out a sigh. He was stabilized. Slowly, he tipped onto his right arm. The cold floor soothing the pains of his muscles across his naked figure. He dragged his arm from beneath him and pulled his helmet closer.

"Lotus?" he asked the opening of the helmet

"L'dael." The now tinny sounding Lotus responded.

"Mission complete."

There was a moments silence. "good work tenno."

He could feel himself slipping toward unconsciousness so with the last of his waking energy he pulled the helmet closer.

"Do me a favour..." his eyes started to feel heavier and heavier "Tell Arkas to get Crane to meet my craft in the hangar.." and with that, the void claimed him. A void filled with the image of the black and red Nyx


	5. Chapter 5 Recollection 1

A scene lay before L'dael; It was a junction, the single light that flickered above illuminating the black and blue excalibur that lay there, blood bubbling out of a gash at eye height. L'dael knew the scene well. The memory of when his true sight was lost. The Nyx appeared from the left, walking ponderously over to him, spinning her scythe between her fingers, residual blood pinwheeling off. Arriving beside his unmoving body, she crouched and leaned in close to his ruined helm, inspecting the damage she had done.

"Oh you poor little thing." She said softly, she reached down and pressed the release points on his helm, easing it off to reveal the ragged wound that cut deep into his face, stark white bone mixing with the red of his blood. Setting the helmet aside, she slowly traced a finger around L'daels left eye, causing him to tense as newer pain flowed through his barely functioning mind. "And you had such pretty eye's too Dael..."

Slowly, L'daels mouth moved. Concentrating on forming the single word he desired overrode every stab of pain he felt. "What's' that?" The Nyx asked, leaning in close and cocking her head.

"why.." the word came out as a strangled hiss. The Nyx sat back and seemed to contemplate it for a moment, before leaning in again and pressing a thumb into one of his now empty eye sockets. The scream was all consuming, repeating over and over as L'daels legs bucked and thrashed, but still she did remove her thumb. Strangling down his scream, he used the energy to form more words.

"A...sa-dist...now...Tias?" He ground out his words, she couldn't help but admire his defiance.

"Now?" The Nyx known as Tias finally removed her thumb, causing L'dael to take a few heaving gasps of air now that he could breath through the pain. She took a moment to inspect the gore that her thumb was covered in. "My dear L'dael, i've always been this way." She said, forcing two fingers down into his eye sockets. L'dael watched as his legs flailed wildly until, finally, he lay still, claimed by an abyss that he would be unfortunate enough to wake from.

_But now you've found her...and where tragedy is, calamity will soon follow..._The thoughts echoed throughout the space as the scene faded from sight and his mind slowly slipped back into rest.


	6. Chapter 6 Recollection 2

L'dael was in a sullen mood as he stalked through the hallways of the Dojo.

Three days had passed since the op during the Cicero Crisis, and after sleeping for one of them - courtesy of a sedi spray that Val gave him as he lay in bed unconscious shortly after arriving back at the Dojo - he was getting impatient.

The Lotus was taking her time decompiling the files she had retrieved from the data archive, an unusually long time for a lady who could gain access to information about secure facilities and their schematics in a matter of hours. It quickly grew too much for L'dael who had been trying to wait patiently in the comforting half light of his room. So for the last few hours he had taken to walking around the Dojo in an attempt to subdue the restlessness in his body, only to find his thoughts clouded by the faces of the friends that Tias had robbed him of. By no means was she responsible for the deaths of all one hundred and thirty one of his friends, but every one of them was looking from inside of him, willing him to lay the first of few of their kind to rest. All of a sudden L'dael heard the voice of his late master, from a memory long ago, before L'dael earned his name.

"Patience child, remember: A hasty strike is often the last you are likely to make." It had been a cold, icy day. One of the last that his clan spent planetside before the fall of the Orokin and the first day his talent had made itself apparent.

Even the memory sent a shiver down his spine. He had already spent several hours hammering the dummy bot in the middle of the snow covered courtyard in little more than a baggy pair of shorts, and after beating every difficulty setting, he was now struggling through uncharted territory. This was when Master Vardas began to observe him from afar, watching silently as he rained a lightning storm of blows down on the dummy with the practice skana only to have them blocked with equal speed before being thrown across the courtyard, skidding through the now compacted snow on his back. On went Vardas's observation; attack, countered, thrown, attack, countered, thrown. While Vardas would later admit that he was impressed by both the boys skill and speed of recovery, he grew tired of the child's repeated failure to adapt. With a sigh, Vardas walked over to where the boy lay face down in the snow after he had been sent flying by the dummy once again.

"You are aware that what you're doing will never work, are you not?" He asked. With a yelp of surprise, the boy scrambled to his knees and bowed his head.

"M-master! I didn't realise you had been watching, if I had, I wou-" The boy stammered out before being cut off by a burst of laughter from the ranking tenno.

"Do not worry little one, it is my duty both as master and tenno to help my family." Vardas said as he held a hand out for the boy to take. "Now, can you tell me what you think you're doing wrong?" He asked as the boy picked himself up off the floor.

"W-well, I don't think i'm-" was as far as he got before Vardas cut him off again.

"Wrong!" He barked. "Rule one of training: If you aren't progressing, no matter how difficult the adversary, you are doing something wrong."

Startled by this, the boy went silent for a long time as he thought about every step he took and wondered where he was going wrong. Sensing that it would be faster to teach him than have him figure it out by himself, Vardas took the practice skana from the boy and advanced on the dummy. The dummy activated when he was within it's attack radius and quickly began its attack. Vardas blocked them with ease for four seconds before time seemed to slow for him. He ducked the swipe the dummy was making at chest height and sliced upwards, lifting the dummy into the air and flipping before it slammed into the ground. Walking to the boy, he handed the skana back to him.

"Tell me what you saw."

"...you blocked...and then the dummy was airborne..." The boy couldn't quite seem to be able to process what he had seen. With a smile at the memory of the time his own master had left him in a familiar position, Vardas began his explanation.

"What you were doing before didn't give you any chance to think. You charged in head first, planning to strike the enemy before they had a chance to react." The Dummy had now righted itself and returned to the ready position in the middle of the courtyard. "While that may work against an unaware or unskilled adversary, an enemy who is ready for you and has some air of skill about them will defend from it with ease. Think about your attack; wait for an opening and strike through it."

"Now." Vardas placed his hand on the boys back and propelling him toward the dummy. "Try it once more."

Unsure quite how to pull it off, the boy entered the dummies attack radius and began to take a fusilade of blows. He lasted three long seconds before his attempt earned him a backhanded strike that sent him backward once more.

"Patience child, remember: A hasty strike is often the last you are likely to make." Vardas called over.

Turning from his master to his foe and back, the boy faced the dummy once more and took a deep breath. Skana held in both hands, he dashed within the dummies attack radius again, drawing a sigh from his masters lips. _This kid just doesn't-_ was what Vardas thought before he ground to a halt. The boy moved in a blur, blocking less than his master and dodging more than a few of the lightning strikes. The Dummy attacked with an overhead slash which presented the opportunity. The boy dashed left before spinning into the air, striking the Dummy in the side of the head with the skana and sending it tumbling over.

It was Vardas's turn to be shocked. He never expected the boy to pick it up so fast. Recovering from the shock, Vardas closed his eyes and smiled. He heard the boy approach him.

"Was that better master?" The boy asked with an all too real innocence.

Vardas placed a hand on the boys head and ruffled it.

"My boy." He said with a chuckle. "You are going to be an exemplary Tenno."


End file.
